Although as a school you do everything you can to keep parents and guardians happy at all times, it’s unavoidable to receive some complaints from time to time. How do you deal with these complaints, and most importantly, what measures are you taking in order to avoid them? Believe it or not, a well-presented school website helps reduce complaints as s it’s the place where parents and guardians can always find the information they need. Let’s examine how as a school you can defuse tension with parents and guardians and keep them as happy as you can.
Popular parental complaints
Some of the most common issues parents and guardians tend to complain about with schools include not being engaged enough, processes (such as transactions or data collection) being handled in complex ways, any concerning behaviour by staff members or other pupils (for instance, physical violence, verbal arguments, or even bullying), and general decisions being made by the school board or headteacher.
What procedure do you follow to handle complaints?
To ensure school staff members are consistent and careful in the way they deal with parental complaints, the Department of Education has released some guidelines to help you decide how to address an issue with a parent or guardian. Remember Ofsted considers parental complaints when inspecting schools, so it’s important that your staff are aware of this advice.
The first step is to identify whether a matter should be considered a complaint or a concern; complaints should be resolved as soon as possible. Keep reading the Department of Education’s guidelines on school complaints procedures here.
Smart tips to avoid parental complaints
There are some ways for your school to avoid parents and guardians complaining by considering the most common issues they can have. For instance, you should always make sure that parents and guardians are as engaged as they can be: you should have regular communications in place to update them on their children’s education journey, any events your school might want to advertise, and announcements they should be aware of (such as school closures, parents’ evening, non-uniform day).
If you are requesting parents and guardians to complete payments through an online platform, you need to ensure that you are investing in the right platform in the market. You should look for a school payments provider that offers many services that benefit both your school and families, and most importantly it needs to be easy to use. Investing in a provider that offers accessible options, such as a handy app, or Google Pay, makes payments even easier to complete.
Another way to keep parents and guardians informed is to have a modern, up to date school website that provides important information and your latest announcements. Not only does this make parents and guardians less likely to express any disappointment with your school, it also reduces the number of calls your school office receives requesting information or asking questions. Think about your school website as your virtual headquarters, for both your current students’ parents and for prospects. Training families to regularly check the website will get them into a habit of finding what they’re looking for by themselves, which builds trust between them and your school.
Our tool can help you in this mission
At WisePay, we offer the right software to help you put these tips into action and keep your parents and guardians satisfied. Discover the bundle of school communications, payments and website design that we offer and find the combination that’s best for your institution. Speak to our team to find out today!
